End of Silence

Apparently, our rural neighbors to the east couldn’t be satisfied with a buzzer-beating victory Wednesday night over the UT Men’s basketball team, they had to invent a controversy over the Bryan-College Station Eagle’s cover photo of the game winning shot. Gibson is clearly wearing black bicycle-type shorts under his uniform shorts. C’mon people. Don’t you have anything else to do out there in College Station? Oh, wait.

It’s funny what people will get worked up about sometimes. I’d been tending to ignore this dogs-on-patios issue because I thought it was such a silly thing to have a debate about. Apparently, it’s big enough to get City Council members to have press conferences and local attention grabbers to take the opportunity to grandstand. Why the hell does Marc Katz have an opinion on this anyway? Is he intending to run for mayor again this year? Good luck with that.

The issue? Whether or not restaurants should be allowed to have dogs on their patios. Not whether or not they should be able to have them on tables or in the restaurant, but if they’re allowed on an outside patio. I think this whole ruckus started last year when Austin/Travis County Health inspectors started issuing warnings to Freddie’s Place and Austin Java Company among others for having dogs on the patio. This prompted Freddie’s to begin deputizing dogs in an attempt to get around the rule. Now, the City Council has taken up the issue and will have a hearing tomorrow night on whether or not to change the city law and explicitly allow restaurants to choose to allow or not allow dogs on outdoor patios.

I’m wondering who would have a problem with this? I remember several years ago that Gingerman stopped allowing dogs after an incident at Lovejoy’s where a patron was bitten in the face by a dog, but that’s not a health issue. Several people have pointed out as part of the debate that it’s ok to have a grackle shit in your food, but it’s not ok for a dog to be sitting on the ground anywhere near your table? Makes perfect sense.

BTW, that photogenic fellow in the photo is my housemate of nearly 10 years and he has no problem with dogs on the patio as long as they stay away from his ball.

EmptyVee has taken notice of local metal throwbacks, The Sword. It appears a media frenzy is building for these local boys steeped in Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in the run up to SXSW. Is it time to get snarky and say that we found ’em first (barely)?

If you missed them last week, they’ll be playing a showcase at SXSW at Buffalo Billiards on Friday, March 17th at 1am. It appears they’re working on a new website, but there’s nothing there yet.

I found this item over on Houston Democrats. David Van Os, a candidate for Texas Attorney General, is planning a 24-hour filibuster on the steps of the Capitol building here in Austin, starting Friday, March 3rd at 6pm.

In 1836 the founders of Texas declared and won their independence from dictatorship and entered the community of nations.

In our day the people of Texas must again win their independence from the modern dictatorship of corruption, cronyism, and corporate government.

Please join me as I honor the 170th anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence by conducting a 24-hour Filibuster for Independence at the seat of Texas government on the State Capitol grounds.

I’ve heard good things about Van Os. This’ll be a good opportunity to check him out.

It’s the invasion of the “D” cities. Go check out what’s happening in Denver and Dublin, the newest Metroblogging cities.

Move over Dubai, Detroit and Dallas. Will there be a rumble between the D’s and the M’s? My money’s on Detroit and Dublin.